F-5 a Comin'

I suppose it was pretty inevitable, but HM has, if not announced, then at least highly hinted at an upcoming Northrop F-5.  It's not yet clear whether this will be the F-5 A/B 'Freedom Fighter' version of the F-5 E/F 'Tiger II', but in either case, well, there it is.

Yes, please.  This is the one that I want.

The F-5 is famous for two basic things:

1. It was produced cheaply and did yeoman's work.  Off the top of my head, only the A4 Skyhawk provided more value for money to the taxpayer than the F-5.
2. It was the main artifact of a philosophy that basically said "let's sell our allies good cheap planes; good enough and cheap enough that they won't buy from the Soviets, but not so good that we can't shoot them down ourselves with relative impunity should the need arise."

As such, it was purchased by a large number of natuions, a lot of which were the sort who ran their air forces more as rich boys' clubs.  As a result, there are plenty of fun and useless liveries for the F-5.  There are also plenty of decent, working ones.  Here are my pics:

• I like USAF aggressor aircraft, and certainly we'll see an F-5 livery or two as such, despite the HM A4 Aggressor not selling that well (probably due to overproduction).
• A USN livery or two - hopefully like the one I've shown above.
• A VNAF camoflaged version is virtually a lock.
• As is a Thunderbirds livery.
• Given that HM seem to make a ROC version when one is possible, this too seems fairly certain.

Beyond that, a lot of the liveries fall into the realm of the sort of thing that Witty puts out and then are dumped at $15 at some point down the line.  

Belongs in a cheap European nightclub.

Still, there are more classive beauties about as well - T38s, F-5s, and otherwise.

Honestly, this is an aircraft that I wish were done by Witty Wings.  They'd do just as good a job on it (well, 90% as good) as HM, but for 1/3 the price (I'm sure HM's already thinking of $39.99+, RRP for this speck of an aircraft).  Or, at least the old Witty would have.  The current Witty will not do much of anything, except partner with "Sky Guardians Europe."  Man, I hope those clowns get their act together enough to release the Javelin and Sea Vixen.